The Prince and the Princess
by dreamerdreamer
Summary: A young man running away from his past and towards another chance in life is swept into the sea. A mermaid disguised as a boy rescues him, and so begins an adventure of magic, friendship, loyalty and love. Includes characters from other fairy tales.
1. Chapter 1

_Prince Stefan was supposed to be dead. Attacked by a ruthless necromancer, he had been mortally wounded by a poisoned arrow—a poison of which no remedy could be found in his kingdom. Just when Stefan had given up and accepted his death, a fairy had appeared and granted him one chance—two weeks total—to make it to an island of magic, where a cure would be waiting for him—if he could make it there within two weeks. All magic has its limits, and most is unforgiving. He left everything behind, including his crown._

 _Stefan had one week remaining upon his mortal clock. So far, things were going swimmingly. He had escaped his kingdom alongside his best friend Marius, boarded the ship that would sail across the mysterious waters, and now land was not far off again._

 _His next journey begins here._

* * *

4 Days Into the Voyage

A hefty breeze pushed the ship forward across the sloshing waves; the sea a swirling, sapphire abyss below. The crewmen enjoyed the sting of the salty wind and the peak of their voices over and under it: a storm was nearby.

Stefan clutched at the bow of the ship as it rocked between the swells, urging himself not to be sick. When the first mate spied him in this state, he discreetly pressed a mysterious leather flask into his hands.

"Have a little drink for ye," he said kindly enough. "It'll dull the sensation until the sea calms."

Stefan wordlessly obliged, inviting the burning liquid down his throat and into his stomach. In the far distance, a white flash of lightning pierced the horizon. The wind picked up and whistled past his ears.

He had wanted to remain on deck, scanning the sea for the first sign of land, but now evening was falling upon them and the conditions were growing rougher. On top of this, he refused to admit to himself, his shoulder was hurting again. Nothing he did seemed to take his mind off of the pain.

He passed the flask back to the first mate after a few deep swigs, and ran his hand over his mouth. "Thanks. See you at dinner."

The first mate nodded and took off.

In the galley, Marius was set at a bench working on some notes in his medical notebook, a journal he took with him everywhere he went. The hanging candlelight shed just enough illumination through the cabin that Stefan could make out his friend's messy scrawl upon the page. The book shut just as Marius noticed him looking. He glanced up, his eyes imperceptible in the shadows.

"It's impossible to get anything done with the ship rocking about like this," Marius remarked.

"Then take the day off," Stefan said lightly, taking the seat beside him. He was already feeling better from the drink, though a sudden pang shot through his shoulder and down into his chest. He shuddered involuntarily.

Marius noticed this. "I can't 'take the day off', my friend. Despite this promise from a fairy, it's still my job to work until I find an answer to… to your-"

"—I'm fine," Stefan said quickly, cutting him off. "And I doubt you'll be able to come up with something in this setting, at least. The captain says we will be arriving to the island tomorrow."

Marius raised his eyebrows. "And what if we don't?"

Stefan shrugged, plucking an apple from a nearby bowl and biting into it. He concentrated on suppressing every surfacing thought about his pending death.

"Anyway," Marius continued determinedly, "I think I'm on to something. You see, the slow acting poison working through your body matches one I studied while working with that healer from the mountains, some years ago. It used to be believed that there was no cure for it—until one was found, of course, in another land. The chemical material that the remedy is composed of is quite basic, and similar to ingredients found, well, _in the sea_."

Stefan struggled to swallow the bites of apple as the ship bumped and groaned. "It's really extraordinary, at this point, to entertain the possibility that the sea could have anything to offer but nausea and disorientation," he remarked.

"That, I can agree with," Marius replied. He pulled a small vial from out of his vest and handed it to Stefan. "You should apply this to your wound tonight. It'll help with the pain, as well as slowing the poison's progress. It will also make you quite tired, I think."

"I haven't slept in days," Stefan suddenly realize aloud.

An uneasy silence followed and penetrated the galley, only to be interrupted by the distant rumble of thunder.

"You need some sleep, my friend," Marius said, getting up and gathering his things. "I'll meet you on deck in a few hours for supper."

Stefan shuffled back to his private cabin and carefully removed his shirt, refusing to spare even a glance at his wound in the mirror. Surely it looked worse than ever now, now that he was so close to—

- _the end?_

After applying the serum, he was at last lulled into a strange, numbing state of mind. And when he lay down on his cot and closed his eyes, he finally fell into a deep, deep sleep.

* * *

Stefan continued to sleep as the waves, gathering strength, crashed against the hull of the ship, as if they were Poseidon's very own fists heaving up from the deep, thirsty for chaos. His dreams were like a trap he had fallen into, and in his subconscious he tried to claw his way out of them as his cabin rocked wildly. Then the door to his room burst open.

Marius seized him by his shoulders and Stefan woke with a cry of pain.

"We need to get on deck— _the ship is on fire!_ "

Stefan shook his head, dazed. "What?"

Marius heaved him to his feet and Stefan was forced to follow him through the haze of half consciousness he was still in. The hallway was filling with smoke as they stumbled along the heaving floor and caught hold of the ladder that led to the deck. Through the opening, fresh and furious seawater came gushing through.

Upon the deck, the crewmen ran about frantically, passing buckets of water in a chaotic procession. The fire blazed over the captain's quarters, and yet still the ship burned in the midst of a howling gale, and so fire, wind and rain filled the sky together. Stefan had barely enough time to take it all in when the ship lurched steeply on its side, sending crewmen and equipment alike sliding across the deck in a flurry of ice cold foam.

The fire could not be contained. It spread like a madness, destroying all the ship in its path. The ship creaked and quaked, falling apart in the thrashing of the sea. Once the crew determined that the ship was gone, they ran about releasing the dinghies and dropping them into the waves. In the confusion, the cannons were released from their ties and so they began to wheel wildly around the deck, smashing and obliterating anything in their path. By now, men were practically throwing themselves off the ship and into the dinghies below. Marius helped Stefan move toward where the captain was evacuating passengers. The deck groaned beneath their feet as they moved, followed by a gush of sea that rushed up to their knees. The ship was lurching again to its side. As Marius struggled to right himself, he didn't see the loose cannon rolling toward him. Stefan, however, saw it and threw his body forward, knocking Marius out of its path. The next second, the cannon caught Stefan and dragged him across the deck, smashing into the opposite railing. The ship splintered and the cannon fell through and into the sea; Stefan, winded from the impact, remained dangling off the side.

The shock from the impact sent dark clouds running through his brain, and as the ship continued to rock in the thrashing waves, Stefan felt his fingers slip, and then a release. A feeling of being free ran through his body for one sweet, fleeting moment before he plunged through the surface of the sea and into the swirling, mysterious deep below.

The underwater world was churning, restless. Stefan flailed his limbs frantically against the pull, but his strength was incomparable to the might of the sea. The water was black to his eyes, and the immediate tightness blooming in his lungs threatened to overcome the bitter numbness he was beginning to feel from the icy water. His body thrashed and spun in the current—never going up, but continuously down. His thoughts began to drain from his mind as his consciousness faded.

 _So here it is, my grave at last…_

He did not feel a pair of hands reach out through the cold darkness and grasp him suddenly, nor was he aware that he was then being pulled through the water with ease, at top speed. His mind had drifted elsewhere for the time. He dreamt of death.


	2. Chapter 2

The world eventually came back to him, one sense at a time.

The smell of hot, salty air rolling upon a light breeze. The sun's glare from above, filling his eyelids. And then Stefan began to feel the pain that covered his body, and opened his eyes.

The sky stretched endlessly over him, not a cloud in sight. Stefan struggled with his stiffened and weakened body to sit up and surveyed his surroundings; he was lying on a large slab of rock on some unfamiliar, jagged coastline. Several feet below him the sea splashed lazily against the embankment.

Stefan glanced down at himself to find his hands covered in jagged, sore cuts. His shoes were gone and his pants hung in tatters at his knees. He lifted his shirt to find blackened bruises spreading across his abdomen where the cannon had hit him. When he breathed in he felt a sharp twinge of pain; undoubtedly he had broken a rib or two as well. The familiar pain from the wound on his shoulder throbbed dully in the mix. He lay back down against the rock and closed his eyes.

And then, a strange sound crossed over the breeze and took Stefan by surprise. It was, he suddenly realized, the sound of muffled crying.

Again he sat up.

"Who's there?" He tried to ask, but his voice came out in nothing more than a raspy whisper. There was no answer.

Painfully, he pulled himself over the slab of rock and peered down below by the water. Indeed, someone was there. They glanced up suddenly, noticing him. It appeared to be a boy in the water, one not much younger than Stefan himself.

The boy was half submerged in the water; he wore a heavy shirt made of a strange fabric with a tattered sailor's cap pulled down far over his forehead. Stubble covered his youthful chin. The boy gave Stefan a glaring look, his crying put to an abrupt stop.

"You're alive," the boy remarked gruffly.

"Yes," Stefan managed to say.

The boy shook his head, turning his gaze down towards the water. "I _don't_ understand…"

"Understand what?"

The boy glared up at him again, an unspeakable conviction in his eyes. "I saved you," he said hoarsely, "I saved your life. I was supposed to-" here, he broke off and stared sullenly out at the ocean.

Stefan inched closer. " _You_ saved me? But how?"

"Because I can swim really well," the boy replied indignantly. And as he said this, a brown tale flitted out from under the water and slapped the surface, sending the water bumping in rings of small waves against the rocks. Stefan stared at this in disbelief. The tail was connected to the boy. The boy had a fish's tail instead of legs.

The boy locked eyes with Stefan, his features frozen in frustration. "When merfolk save a mortal's life, we are awarded one wish. You are alive, yet my wish did not come true." He burst into sobs again and turned his face down toward the water.

Stefan sat up. "You chose the wrong person to save," he said apologetically, pulling his shirt off of his shoulder to reveal his poisoned wound. "I'm still dying. Unless I can somehow find my way to the island I was going to on that ship, there is no hope for me."

The boy peered at the wound curiously. "You have to reach an island in order to live?"

"That's what the fairy said," Stefan explained. "There is a poison inside of me making its way to my heart. The antidote for this poison is supposed to be waiting for me there."

The boy shrugged. "Where I come from, fairies are mistrusted. I doubt you have to reach any particular island to find an antidote for that," he said, pointing to Stefan's wound.

The idea struck Stefan. "Really? But how would I know what to look for?"

This seemed to brighten the boy's mood. His tail splashed against the surface of the water again, sending icy droplets fluttering through the air. "I can take you to a sacred place in the sea, one my people keep a secret. It is a place where the plants are blessed; plants that can heal _anything._ "

"Anything? How do you know?"

"Everyone knows," said the boy. "Under the sea, that is."

Despite himself, Stefan laughed. "If you haven't noticed, my friend, I'm not half fish as you are. I couldn't find the cure down there without drowning first. So, thanks for saving me, but I'm the wrong guy."

The boy fisted the water in frustration. "Just listen," he said. "I want to make a deal with you. I can take you to find the cure for your wound. I'm certain we can make it in time…but I also want my wish. Come with me, and we will both get what we want."

Stefan raised his eyebrows in bewilderment. "I don't understand. How would that even be possible?"

Here, the boy grinned. "Let me show you."

Stefan backed away from the boy, painfully pulling himself up the rock. "No thank you."

"I can give you a tail," the boy said quickly. "Just like mine. With it, you can swim as I do and even breathe under water. Once you have a tail, it is a done deal until you return to land again. I'll even show you the way to the shoreline after we find your antidote."

"You can't be serious," said Stefan. "I've never heard of such a thing. Are you trying to trick me? To drown me? What is this?"

"Why would I be tricking you?" said the boy furiously. "I've already saved your life once, whether or not you are still dying. Please, just give me a chance. Surely, you want to live?"

"Yeah, I do," said Stefan.

"Then there is no time to waste."

Stefan lowered himself into the strikingly cold water feet first. The ocean softly lapped against his middle, rendering his lower half nearly numb, and his upper half covered in goosebumps. His teeth rattled as the strange boy took his hand. The sun shone brightly, making it difficult for Stefan to see into the shadow underneath the boy's brimmed hat, obscuring his face.

"This may seem quite strange to you," the boy warned him.

"What will you do?"

"I'm going to swim you down to the bottom of the sea. You will most likely lose consciousness. When you wake shortly after, you will have a tail until you again return to land."

Stefan hesitated, his heart lurching uncomfortably in his chest. He had no idea if he could trust this stranger. And taking another trip into the hostile under-realm did not immediately persuade him. It didn't seem, though, that there wasn't really much choice left.

"What's your name?" Stefan asked.

"It's Cas," the boy replied gruffly. "And yours?"

"Stefan."

"Stefan," he repeated. "You have to come with me voluntarily for this to work. So, based upon the agreed terms, you are willing?"

Stefan squinted in the sun, his feet tingling in the sand below. His heart thudded uncertainly. "I get an antidote, you get a wish. I agree to that."

Cas nodded, and in a flash his impossibly strong hands grasped Stefan's arms. "Don't bother trying to hold your breath," he said. And then he pulled Stefan down into the icy water, far, far away from the safety of the salty, sunny air.


	3. Chapter 3

In his dream Stefan was home again. It was the place he had run away from. He sat upon his father's throne wearing the crown that was intended for him. It was what his life would have been, if the Necromancer had not mortally wounded him with that arrow. But not one he had ever wanted.

It was his brother's life now; the one he had saved. Could his brother ever guess where he was now?

 _Where am I now?_

Stefan opened his eyes with a start.

"Whoa—calm down for a second!"

Strong hands pushed against his chest, forcing him back after he had jolted awake. It was Cas.

He gasped, his lungs expecting air but finding water there instead. Stefan was breathing under water.

"Sorry," said Cas, his hasty voice echoing through the space the same as it did upon land. "You just frightened me."

Stefan sat up. They appeared to be sitting at the bottom of a sunlit grotto, with walls of stone and shell stretching upwards some hundred feet to the wavy surface of the sea.

 _Could this be possible?_

"I'm…" Stefan gasped, daring to look down.

Cas nodded solemnly. "Yes. You're a merman."

Stefan's tail was sapphire blue, stretching three feet beyond his hips. The muscles were strong, the tail lean. He did not have to remember or forget how to use his legs; the tail seemed to be attached to his brain; he could maneuver it as if he had been born with it. And the desire to swim was new, and powerful. How far could he go? How fast? Where to? Where not to?

 _How can this be real?_ He thought. Just as one does not see air on land, he could no longer see or feel the water around him. His eyes possessed a profound clarity of his surroundings; a crystal clear view of the vibrant and mysterious world. The ocean was teeming with color, textures, smells and sounds Stefan had never before imagined. And as he breathed the water into his body, he felt no pain. It filled his lungs like fresh, spring air and set his blood rushing.

Cas noticed his awe and laughed. "Now you get it."

Stefan shook his head slowly. "How is this possible?"

Cas cocked his head. "Don't humans know of our magic? Of our world?"

Stefan shook his head again. "I don't think so. But I'm new to all of this anyway." He chuckled.

"Okay," said Cas. "First things first." He pointed up towards the waves. "Swim to the surface and take a breath. Then swim back down. If you can do that no problem, then you should be good to travel."

"Oh-" Stefan abruptly noticed the wound on his shoulder had been dressed with some kind of sea grass. He felt no pain from his shoulder. The bruise from the cannon slamming into his torso stretched across his abdomen, but it was growing lighter. Even the cuts on his hands were closing up.

"Well, can you swim up there or not?"

Stefan glanced up at the sunlit surface. The sea pulsed and breathed around him, filling his insides with excitement and wonder. He flexed his tail; it was more than ready.

He shot up through the sea as fast as he could go; his arms stretched out before him, feeling the water ripple through his fingers. He could never have moved this fast without a tail, through the sea nor on land. Is this what flying felt like to the birds? Or an arrow after it's been released? The water rushed through his hair, past his body and by his tail. He had never felt more alive in his life.

Through the surface Stefan broke, shooting up into the air above the sea with an unbridled whoop of laughter. He arched his back, his arms outstretched and he felt his body bend and flip in the radiance of the sun. One great, beautiful gulp of air rushed into his lungs as if it had never left, and then in a flash he was breaking through the surface of the sea again and descending gracefully into the cool depths.

He was, ironically, out of breath. His chest heaved with exhaust and excitement.

Cas swam up to meet him. "I think it's safe to say you've recovered enough for the journey."

"How are my wounds healing so quickly?" Stefan asked.

"The ocean is a wonderful place," said Cas. "It has many gifts. But it is also an extremely dangerous place for a human. You will need to stick with me and do whatever I tell you to do if you want to survive."

Cas's heavy shirt and sailor's cap appeared even more ridiculous beneath the sea, the way they clung to his scrawny frame and hung down to his tail. Stefan couldn't help but laugh. "You seem really on edge. What's your story?"

The boy stared daggers, his mouth set in anger. "My story is that I want a wish and in order to get it I have to save you first. Now come on, we can only move when the sun is up. You don't want to know what comes out at night in _these parts_."

 _These parts?_

With an expert flick of his tail, Cas bolted up towards the surface and didn't look back. Stefan followed in his wake, savoring the ocean all around him.

Maybe, just maybe, this was the best thing that could ever happen to him.

* * *

The world around him was in a constant, tangible motion. Above him Stefan could see an imperceptible stretch of light tinged with blue. Below him, miles of swaying sea grass stretched out in all directions in shades of gold and emerald. He had been following Cas through the many landscapes of the sea for what felt like hours. Though they didn't speak, the world was full of sounds. Echoes and rhythmic motions filled the intangible spaces of the water. Stefan was captivated with each new sensation, every new discovery. He marveled as the ocean floor below him sloped ever downwards, turning into rocky terrain of underground mountains and rolling valleys, where darkness stretched as long and sure as the shape of water itself. Coral forests glinted and gleamed in shallow stretches of sea, teeming with thousands of different creatures going about their business, completely oblivious to the existence of the land above.

This was not the same ocean he had almost died in. _That_ ocean had been cruel, suffocating, and ice cold. That ocean had nearly wiped his soul free from his body.

But this ocean… this ocean felt like _home_. One he had never known.

As the sun lazily crossed the sky over the sea, Cas led Stefan through the watery dreamscape. They travelled up near the surface, so they could pop their heads above the waves every once in a while to survey the above world. Along a blue stretch of deep ocean, Cas spotted the sunken ship.

A wrecked mass of rotting wood and sharp edges, the goliath brigantine lay broken and forgotten in the shadows upon rocks, it's tattered sails swaying like ghosts. Cas was immediately captivated.

"We need to take a small detour," he said, pointing to the ship ruins.

Stefan had grown quite cold while looking at it. The memories of his own sinking ship flashed through his mind, as well as the sound of his best friend dragging him to safety across the fiery deck in the storm.

 _Could Marius still be alive?_

"Why do you want to go down there?"

"I collect human things," said Cas. "It's sort of a hobby. Don't worry, we won't be long-" With a flick of his tail, Cas was already swimming down towards the ship. Stefan watched him in hesitation.

As much as he didn't want to be left alone out in the open, there was something about the look of the ship that he didn't like or trust.

"I'm going to wait here," Stefan decided. Cas waved but didn't look back.

Stefan watched as he slipped in through the cabin and disappeared from sight. A shiver ran down his spine as he waited far above, still and silent.

Some time passed. Stefan had no idea how much, as time seemed to move quite differently in this world. For one, the day was impossibly long. How far they had so far traveled, and yet the sun did not yet set. The blue sea and surface above had radiated an unrelenting soft light. Even more, his wound still did not give him pain. It was at least a sign that he could still make it a little further…

A shadow lurked below. Stefan froze as his gaze locked on to a fish so big it could only exist in his nightmares. The fiend did not take notice of him; it swayed and sniffed towards the shipwreck. Then it disappeared into the wreckage. With a mouthful of teeth like knives and the mass of a bull, it was, Stefan realized, a _shark_.

 _Cas!_

His fear-induced paralysis broke, and Stefan was swimming as swiftly and quietly as he could manage down to the shipwreck. The brigantine lay broken upon the jagged terrain like a corpse. Stefan headed towards the cabin where Cas has disappeared into, but suddenly changed his mind and veered towards an opening of splintered wood and sea moss. In the darkness of the shadow of the ship, he listened.

There was without a doubt the soft sound of motion coming from deeper inside. Would the shark attempt to follow the noise as well?

Stefan found Cas in what must have been the galley. He was digging through a cabinet of broken and scattered dinnerware, shoving items haphazardly into a satchel slung across his shoulder.

"Cas," Stefan whispered sharply.

Startled, Cas whipped around and lost his grip upon a dish he was holding; it floated quickly through the water and thudded loudly against the floor. Stefan winced.

"You startled me!"

"Ssshhh!"

"What's going on?" Cas whispered, noticing Stefan's alarm.

Stefan hesitated before replying as he attuned his ears to the environment around them, straining them for any sound of the predator.

"There's a shark," Stefan whispered so low he could barely hear himself, "outside. Hunting for something."

Cas became rigid and still, his eyes now wide beneath his drooping sailor's hat.

From somewhere above them came the sound of creaking, and breaking, wood.

"It followed you in here," Stefan whispered.

"Not again," Cas murmured, wrapping the satchel tightly around his shoulder. "Quick—follow me."

They swam out of the galley and further down into the ship, where the only light came from the small, mossy windows aligning the walls. It appeared to be a dead end.

"I heard that sharks don't need light in order to hunt, that their main sense is smell," Stefan whispered as they looked around the hold for a way out.

"Well," Cas replied testily, "you sound like an _expert_."

Stefan pushed against one of the windows, willing it to give way; it was just big enough for them to be able to slip through. "What did you mean about 'again'? Did you mean that this shark has hunted you before?"

There was the sound of more wood splintering and breaking off; the echoes drawing closer.

"Unfortunately, yes."

Cas pulled a sword from its scabbard on the wall and tossed it towards Stefan, who grabbed it by the handle. Then, he seized one for himself. "I take it you know how to fight?"

Stefan swallowed hard. Yes, he knew how to fight… humans. He had no idea, however, how to fight a thousand pound shark.

And then the beast made his entrance. Smashing through the rotting hallway above, it made its sudden attack with all the force of ten cannonballs. Its mouth wide open and snapping, it bolted to where Cas had just been floating. Cas darted out of the shark's reach, brandishing the sword threateningly. In that moment, Stefan swung forward and swiped at the shark's dorsal fin, laying the blade into it. With a roar, the shark whipped around, breaking Stefan's grip upon the sword, sending him flying back into the wall. Cas streamed by at full speed; the shark followed its bait down the hold, weaving through the maze of splintered and rotting wood. The smell of blood began to fill the ship.

While the shark pursued Cas, Stefan darted for the sword he had dropped. Using the handle, he planned on smashing through the window and creating an escape route just big enough for the two of them. As he hit the glass, it slowly began to splinter. And then the beast came around and lunged for him again. Stefan shot out of the way. The shark smashed into the side of the hold, and Cas reappered, driving his sword into the shark's backside. As the beast writhed in rage, Stefan returned to the window, using all his strength to break the remaining glass. Finally, it gave way and an open hole materialized.

"This way!" he shouted.

Cas had barely just avoided being bitten by the beast; it's jaws were monstrous and angry, snapping at him as blood streamed from its wounds. Stefan lunged forward and seized his arm, and they slipped through the window just as the beast made one final attempt at snatching them in his jaws.

Away from the shipwreck they swam, beyond the jagged rock terrain and further into the darkening sea.

Night was falling at last.


End file.
